20 kilometres, Men

Favorites for the individual 1976 Olympic biathlon gold medal were the 1975 World Champion Heikki Ikola from Finland, runner-up at the same championships Nikolay Kruglov from the Soviet Union, and his experienced teammate Aleksandr Tikhonov. For a long time it looked like the day for a long awaited individual Olympic gold medal for Tikhonov. He was in the lead after the first shooting round, 15 seconds ahead of Ikola, both with perfect shooting series. At the second round, Tikhonov had a one-minute penalty, but he still increased his lead over Ikola to 26 seconds, Kruglov now moving up to third place, 25 seconds behind the Finn. At the third round of shooting all three had perfect series, and Tikhonov increased his lead on Ikola to 1:02. The Finn now had Kruglov on his heels, only eight seconds behind, and the third Soviet competitor Aleksandr Yelizarov had moved up to fourth, 26 seconds behind Kruglov. The three Soviets were clearly the fastest skiers of the day, and Ikola’s only chance seemed to have a perfect shooting result. As usual, the last shooting round turned out to be decisive. The first of the favorites to arrive was Kruglov, and with only one penalty minute he seemed sure of a medal. Next was Ikola. With a perfect round he could take the lead, but he was penalized two minutes, putting him in danger of missing the medals, now 1:24 behind Kruglov. Next to arrive was the leader Tikhonov, but he totally lost his nerves and was penalized six minutes, dropping down to seventh place, and out of the medal race. Yelizarov had a 2-minute penalty and was still behind Ikola, but now only by 19 seconds. Kruglov easily kept his lead to the finish and won by a comfortable margin. Ikola was able to stay in front of Yelizarov and secure the silver medal, 11 seconds ahead of his opponent. Italy’s Willy Bertin finished strongly and advanced to fourth place at the finish, due to a perfect series at the two last shooting rounds. Tikhonov, having the fastest skiing time of the day, almost two minutes faster than Kruglov, was able to advance from seventh to fifth position from the last round of shots to the finish, but was very disappointed with the race, which for a long time, seemed to be a gold medal performance.